Page 36 of Highlander’s Sweet Poison

“Dinnae start with me. I am about to face my in-laws, and ye have nothing to worry about. Art is perhaps the one man who never found my beauty breathtaking or wanted me for anything more than friendship. There was a time when I needed that more than anything.”

“I dinnae find yer beauty breathtaking,” Tearloch pointed out.

“Nay, but ye also dinnae want to be my friend, either.”

It surprised Jillian that Graeme’s mother hadn’t moved into the keep. No one would think twice about it, especially since she was a widow. As she walked up to the door of the small modest cottage, it occurred to her that maybe there was a reason Graeme didn’t want her in the keep.

“Too cowardly to knock?” Tearloch mocked lightly behind her.

“Bite yer tongue.”

At the sound of her knock, children’s screams of delight streamed out from beneath the door, and when it opened, a pair of children, around the ages of eight and ten, stared up at her. “Who are ye?”

He looked exactly like a younger version of Graeme. Her heart stopped. Did her husband have children?

“Davy!” an older voice admonished him. “That is yer mistress, and ye dinnae leave her to stand in the doorway!”

An older woman joined them, and Jillian smiled at the boy, Davy, which would make the younger girl Christy. They were Annella’s children.

Glancing up at the silver-haired matron, Jillian’s smile faded just a little. The woman didn’t exactly have Tearloch’s glower, but she wasn’t welcoming Jillian with open arms. “Lady Bridgette,” she said softly, “ye have not aged a day since the last I saw ye.”

“That would be at my nephew’s funeral, aye?”

So they were not going to tiptoe around the facts. Jillian could appreciate that. “Aye.”

After staring at her for a moment, Bridget jerked her head. “Come on in. Ye too, Tearloch. I have heard about yer wife, and I wish to punch ye straight in the nose for bringing home a new wife and then abandoning her.”

Tearloch winced. “I did as I was ordered.”

“Then I will punch my son as well. Come. I have tea and biscuits.”

“For yer biscuits, ma’am, I will handle yer blistering words.” Tearloch grinned and walked inside. The tension seemed to melt just a little, and Christy and Davy went right back to shrieking and chasing each other over the cottage.

“I apologize, I hadnae realized that I would have them when I asked ye to come,” Bridgette. “My daughter should be here soon to pick them up.”

“’Tis no worries. I love children.”

“Aye, I do remember that about ye. Ye should know that I am unhappy, not that Graeme married ye but that he married without telling me. I had always hoped that he would wed for love, but he has strange ideas about love, and I suppose ye are the result.”

“Me?” Jillian blinked. “Ye think he married me because he didnae want to marry for love?”

“Perhaps. Perhaps it was something else.” After serving Tearloch and the children some food, she gestured for Jillian to follow her into the kitchen. “He told me about what happened to ye. I think it gave him nightmares.”

Without meaning to, Jillian reached out and gripped the counter to steady herself against the wave of dizziness that assaulted her. “Is this why ye summoned me? I assure ye, I amnae carrying a child.”

“That didnae even occur to me, and shame on ye for thinking that about me.”

“I am sorry, but I didnae know what to think about this visit. I had guarded myself for the worst.”

“I have seen too much in my life to believe in witchcraft, but I have certainly seen my fair share of cases on women poisoning their husbands. If ye did do it, ye were smart. There was not much left of the body to examine.”

“Oh, God.”

“Having said that, I dinnae believe ye did. I fear I didnae know my sister’s child well, but I did recognize something in ye, and for that, I am going to be honest with ye.”

“Honest?”

“There has been a storm brewing inside my son for quite some time. He feels responsible for the loss of Loch Moran, and despite my brother-in-law's actions with the women in this clan, he and my son were close. Graeme feels his death closely, and he wants to lead the MacSeavers back to glory. He has what it takes, and if ye are the right woman for him, ye will help.”